Barack Obama says that the US should not send a protectionist message with the Buy American provisions inserted into his stimulus bill. But he took two weeks to get round to pronouncing on the matter. Nor did Mr Obama help matters with his sops to economic nationalism while out on the campaign trail.

Kamal Nath, the Indian trade minister, rails against the iniquities of subsidies and tariffs in the rich countries. But soon after his prime minister signed the no-protectionism pledge at the Group of Twenty meeting in Washington in November he hiked India's soyabean tariffs. Most competition to Indian agriculture in any case comes from unsubsidised farmers elsewhere in the developing world and has nothing to do with unfair trade rules.

Gordon Brown, UK prime minister, warns of the dangers of financial isolationism and styles himself as a champion of an open global economy and the Doha round of trade talks. But his infamous “British jobs for British workers” remark has now fed into anti-foreign worker activism, and he also helped to take whatever wind remained out of the sails of Doha by recalling Peter Mandelson from the EU trade portfolio to the UK cabinet for his own domestic political advantage.